Riding habit

A woman's riding habit consisting of a bodice and apron skirt. It is made of buff-coloured cotton, or a cotton/linen mix, plain weave fabric with 32 warp and 27 weft threads per cm. The bodice and sleeves are fully lined with plain-weave linen with seams neatened on the inside. It has a turn-down collar and is cut from five pattern pieces.

The shoulder and side seams are set to the back, with a centre back and two underarm side-pieces. The front of the bodice is trimmed with graduated lengths of ivory ribbed silk braid applied horizontally, with a silk-covered wooden button stitched at the end of each length. The construction and decoration of the bodice echo the cut and frogging of military Hussar jackets. The braid trim is also applied at the shoulder, waist, back and side seams. The front side seams are top-stitched, as are the two vertical darts running up from the waist seam in both fronts. The bodice fastens with three metal hooks on the inside left and hand-worked loops on the right front.

The sleeves are cut very full with cartridge pleating at the heading. The width of 23 inches across the top indicates a date of c. 1827. They taper to a narrow cuff, with diagonal opening fastening with two metal hooks and eyes. The bodice is stitched and top-stitched with ivory silk thread.

The skirt has three gored panels at the centre front, which are pleated onto a twill cotton tape. It has side-openings, 30cm long, which provide access to pockets. The skirt back attaches to the bodice back and consists of four gored panels of fabric, pleated onto the waist of the bodice, with the addition of a narrow peplum of the same principle fabric, also trimmed with ivory silk ribbed braid and buttons.

The skirt front has no visible fastening, but may originally have tied round the waist. Cotton twill tape stitched to the centre back waist of the bodice would have pulled the skirt back neatly into the back waist. The skirt is stitched with ivory silk thread and cotton or linen thread has been used to neaten raw seam allowances in the skirt and to whip-stitch the pleats to the waist tape.